Quotes by Dennis Thompson

“I think nine (phone calls) is pretty good. Ive been driving all over the city, going to schools, and I have to tell you, I dont see, I havent seen any kids on the street, so theyre either hiding indoors or theyre in school. Im hoping its the latter,”

“This is really the school thats designed to help children. Weve got the right people in there to do that. We just have to stop what were doing in terms of suspending them out of there, so Im confident those students see some positive changes while there,”

“Ive apologized for my remark even though it may have been an accurate characterization of a remark Ive made. Ive apologized for that, and well hopefully deal with it at some point in the future,”

“He was a warrior out there for us.”

“Were going to do what it takes to serve these children, ... Were going to try to make a very chaotic period in their lives as transitional as possible.”

“Truancy is an equal opportunity offense. Its equal exactly with males and females. The demographics are pretty much the demographics of the district, so it hasnt targeted one ethnic group or one gender group,”

“Weve worked closely with the Rockford police department to take our calls from the truancy hotline, identify those areas where we are getting those calls, and focus the resources there. That seems to have worked out exceedingly well,”

“In high school certainly you can do a lot of things to increase attendance, but certainly if theres an adverse consequence the kids have set up and taken notice that underage citations are being given out and theyre getting back to school,”

“Were looking out here. Were seeing this problem, and I realize that being in Rockford for a while, theres strong feelings about it. But were going to have to deal with it.”

“I dont think our defense is overlooked or underrated. These guys just to get out there and play. They love to hit and they love to get after the ball.”